Monthly Archives: April 2008

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport.’ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result … Continue reading →

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it. Mark Twain Send to Kindle

By way of MSNBC’s CosmicLog, an article on the physics arXiv blog: But something else showed up too. An element with a weight of 292 and an atomic number of around 122. That’s an extraordinary claim and quite rightly the … Continue reading →

I have learned to use the word “impossible” with the greatest caution. Wernher von Braun Send to Kindle

I’ve been working on this academic paper, my latest “heresy,” for awhile, and it is time I got some feedback on it. It is rather long: UPDATE: For those who might leave comments based upon a misreading of the title … Continue reading →

Don Patterson on his blog mentioned that I had commented to him that worldliness is not people running amuck, but instead following rules and looking for rules and wanting rules. I wrote an article for Passion Magazine , the newsletter … Continue reading →

The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though … Continue reading →

Another quote from Blink, during the third season of the current Doctor Who: Billy: Where am I?The Doctor: 1969. Not bad as it goes: you’ve got the moon landing to look forward to.Martha: Oh, the moon landing’s brilliant! We went … Continue reading →

From Blink, an episode in season three of Doctor Who: The Doctor: People don’t understand time. It’s not what you think it is.Sally: Then what is it?The Doctor: Complicated.Sally: Tell me.The Doctor: Very complicated.Sally: I’m clever, and I’m listening, and … Continue reading →

13th AnnualIndex of Leading Environmental IndicatorsReport Released for Earth Day 2008 Summary from the Pacific Research Institute: • The latest UN report on global forest trends shows that Asia has reversed deforestation over the last decade and is now experiencing … Continue reading →